van’t Schip: City too cautious in the second half

Melbourne City Head Coach John van’t Schip has lamented his side’s cautious approach to the second half, saying his side must make more use of their possessional dominance on the game.

City were only minutes away from their first three points against the Wanderers away from home before a stoppage time own goal saw van’t Schip’s side leave Spotless Stadium with a point.

The visitors dominated possession and proceedings throughout most of the match as Western Sydney employed a similar defensive block to Brisbane and Perth and the Dutchman felt his side should have made more from their control over the match.

“It’s something we have to identify. When you keep the ball and coming in those areas you can go for the second goal,” van’t Schip said.

“Otherwise every time you’re leading, you’re trying to outplay the opponent but not really finishing them off. It’s about getting into areas where you are dangerous and score a second goal, it makes it a lot easier than leading 1-0 and knowing that anything can happen when you get into awkward situations like we did at the end of the game.

“We put ourselves under pressure by not making the right decision when defending. We’ll talk about it but we’ll move on because it’s another game we knew was going to be difficult. Western Sydney needed the result and were fired up.

“It’s a difficult place to come. Western Sydney is a good footballing team so we have to take it from there and move on.”

The result did see Tim Cahill net his second goal for the Club, finding the back of the net after 55 minutes from a brilliant Fernado Brandan ball into the penalty area, and the Head Coach lauded the Socceroo’s contribution to the squad.

“Timmy has done well. He’s important for the team, contributing every time in a good way,” he said.

“He’s giving the young players in the team that little bit more experience and scored an important goal. Last week he didn’t score but he made the run to open it up for Bruno.

“He’s been good and the important thing is he’s getting minutes, he’s training so with the week that comes now hopefully he’ll get a good week again and be ready for a massive week that is coming up for us.”

The point saw City retain their spot on the A-League ladder, sitting six points behind league-leaders Sydney FC and will prepare for a Wellington side on Sunday who had their Round 7 fixture postponed due to the New Zealand earthquake situation.

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